Category: Game Design

Right, so, in Part 1 I talked about my first step in game design, which is an idea. Seems rather silly to point out that being a first step, so anyway.

Lets talk about step 2, which is rough mechanics.

I touched on a bit about the rough mechanics for Rock Rock Rock (rock rock)… Wow, I’m going to shorten that to RRRrr. Much easier. Basing it on a 5 item rock-paper-scissors mechanic.

So, let’s start by defining our 5 different items.

What kind of rocks are there? More importantly, what would cavemen see them as?

Well… Just spitballing here but how about:

• Hard Rock
• Pointy Rock
• Heavy Rock
• Chalky Rock
• Shiny Rock

We need to set up a table to make sure we have everything in balance, lets start with a mostly blank matrix. where we’ve filled in a tie:

vs	Hard	Pointy	Heavy	Chalky	Shiny
Hard	Tie
Pointy		Tie
Heavy			Tie
Chalky				Tie
Shiny					Tie

Now, filling out the rest by just common sense:

vs	Hard	Pointy	Heavy	Chalky	Shiny
Hard	Tie	Hard	Heavy	Hard	Shiny
Pointy	Hard	Tie	Heavy	Pointy	???
Heavy	Heavy	Heavy	Tie	Heavy	???
Chalky	Hard	Pointy	Heavy	Tie	Chalky
Shiny	Shiny	???	???	Chalky	Tie

Well, this is a problem. So, the what the matrix above says, is that the common-sense of what beats what is skewed. In some cases, like Heavy, it’s overpowering, and in other cases, like Shiny, we have no idea. So, back to the drawing board.

vs	Hard	Pointy	Heavy	Chalky	Shiny
Hard	Tie	Hard	Heavy	Hard	Shiny
Pointy	Hard	Tie	Heavy	Pointy	Pointy
Heavy	Heavy	Heavy	Tie	Chalky	Shiny
Chalky	Hard	Pointy	Chalky	Tie	Chalky
Shiny	Shiny	Pointy	Shiny	Chalky	Tie

So, in this case, the common sense factor had to take a bit of a back seat. You can make some logical wiggle to get around some things, but in any case, we have a matrix, where each item has 2 win conditions, 2 lose conditions, and a tie condition…

The tie could be a problem if you want a definitive winner. We’ll come back to that later.

< Back to Part 1

Okay, so, because this got stuck in my head, I’m putting it down for future generations to get a glimpse of how my game design process goes.

Step one: Come up with an idea. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to exist. Its kind of like writing. Your first draft is not going to be the final draft, but if you don’t start, you won’t get there. So, step one: idea.

In this case, we’re going to use the idea for a game I’m calling Rock Rock Rock (rock rock).

Note the originality of the title. Yes, shut up. I meant to do that. It’s deliberate, and I think I’m clever.

Anyway, the idea came from a rather strange conversation at my FLCS/FLGS. Where speaking to the owner, the statement of: “How did cavemen break ties, they couldn’t exactly play rock-paper-scissors.” was floated into the aether.

Thus was born a seed for a new game.

Okay, everyone knows Rock-Paper-Scissors, it’s a children’s game we still play as adults, because we are all children deep down. Also, just about literally everyone has played it. The rules don’t need to be explained to most people.

There’s a simple progression, where each option can be countered by exactly one option and counters the other option. Rock beats Scissors beats Paper beats Rock…

There’s actually a mathematical model for this sort of game, where you can increase the number of options to any odd number and then each move will have (N-1)/2 wins/losses for any given option.

So in the case of R-P-S, there are 3 options.

And the formula becomes (3-1)/2 = 1; So one possible win or loss per option.

So, what happens when we go to 5?

Well, to borrow from the BBT, where you have Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock… You can see that each option has 2 wins and 2 losses. once again, (N-1)/2.

So what does this have to do with game design, it’s obvious that this isn’t new?

Well, a lot of times, game design is adding variation and theme to a game that already exists. And we’ll get into that in the next part.

On to Part 2 >